Data confirms value of wearing helmets

Children are seven times more likely to need brain surgery if they're not wearing a helmet when they crash their bike.

Associate Professor Franz Babl, who examined 8000 cases of child head injury treated at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital, says the data reinforces the importance of helmets.

The research comes amid public debate over Australia's mandatory helmet laws for cyclists.

"Depending on how you calculate it, the kids who didn't wear a helmet had up to seven times higher rate of neurosurgery," Prof Babl, the hospital's Director of Emergency Research, told AAP.

"It really ranges from just a bump or a cut to the head, to skull fractures ... to inter cranial injuries such as bleeding in and around the brain.

"(It) could have long term consequences that range to disability and even death."

The study considered all cases of child head injury treated at the hospital which were linked to bikes, motorcycles, scooters, horses, skateboards, all-terrain vehicles or go-carts, from April 2011 to January 2014.

Bikes were commonly involved in injury-causing crashes, although motorised vehicles were associated with a higher need for surgery.

The research also showed kids were far less likely to protect their heads when skateboarding or riding a scooter, and more likely to wear helmets on motorcycles and horses.

Prof Babl said further legislation may be required to encourage helmet use, but this was tricky as many accidents occurred on private property.

He said parents played a crucial role in ensuring children, particularly young kids, wore helmets but social media marketing strategies could also help get the message out.

There was also scope for optimising helmet design, he said, as children who were hit on the side of the head were more likely to suffer complications.

"There is a possibility of improving the helmet design to protect these areas a bit more," Prof Babl said.

He spoke at the annual scientific meeting of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine in Melbourne on Tuesday.